Let me just start off by saying I am not generally a huge Romance reader but maybe I’m a conovert after reading BEACH READ??

OH MY GOSH, this book was so much fun! The added complexity and character development that the author manages to convey, with January and Gus both individually and in their relationship, really sold me on this book and let the pages fly on by. These complex moments made the story feel more authentic to me and leveled out some of the plot points that could have easily skewed more to the cheesy side of things.

I’ve really had fun reading this in my hammock in my backyard imagining I’m actually somewhere on the beach (#quarantine). I actually took a break for a few days as I was approaching the last 30% or so because I just didn’t want it to end - usually I power through the last bit of books but I wanted to savor this one!

Thank you NetGalley & Berkley Publishing Group for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I saw this on Book of the Month club and was curious about it. I thought it had way more depth than your average romance and I couldn't guess how things were going to play out (even though I guessed what the end result would be) and I plowed through it in a couple of days. A little more swearing and sex content than I'm comfortable widely recommending.

This was such an unexpected book!

When you look at the cover and the title, you think that this is going to be a lighthearted book with quirky characters (main and side!) and witty banter between some possible enemies to lovers, taking place on the beach, of course! And it certainly does have those elements (minus the beach setting. For a book with that title and that cover there is a disappointing lack of actual beaches and swimming). You have the quirky townspeople and Gus and January have some hilarious banter. Gus doesn’t think of January as an enemy but she does think that he looks down on her and remembers him for that, although aside from being told that she thinks of them as rivals it doesn’t come across that way. January tells him how frustrating it is that people look down on women’s fiction because if you changed the name of the author and the name of the main character to men’s names, it would just be considered fiction. While the cover and title is most likely mis marketing, I’d like to think of it as meta on some level.

January has been suffering from writer’s block and moves into the beach house that her recently deceased father shared with his mistress, which January’s mother knew about but January just found out about. She goes there to clean the house up and also to work on her next book, which unfortunately she has been struggling to write. January is a romance author and whew that’s hard to write about when dealing with that drama. She bumps into an old college acquaintance of hers, Augustus, who always laughed at her for only writing happy ending stories in college when he always wants tragic endings. They end up making a bet to see who can write a book in the other person’s genre and sell it, with each of them teaching the other something about how to write in that genre.

While this book has several elements of that cutesy summer read (I particularly enjoyed the notes that Gus and January exchanged while working on their respective books), it also has dealing with the repercussions of infidelity, complicated familial love, and the exploration of suicide death cults.

The love scenes had some descriptions that were more hilarious than romantic, but ultimately this was a sweet book.

All about love and writing and stories and such. Actually, I really thought the part exploring the lives and stories of these two writers was interesting and added a lot of depth to the story. The romance is there but it’s mostly smoldering and also full of misunderstandings—but nothing too over the top.

This is definitely a good beach read with more substance than expected, like Red, White and Royal Blue.

Beach Read by Emily Henry comes out in May and gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me! You know what I loved about it? I loved that it’s an enjoyable read. The story has a great pace and the banter (and some uh tension 😜) between the characters instantly drew me in.

I gave this the fourth star because of the way the difficult issues (relationship changes, grief, job insecurity, family tension) were handled within the story. Sometimes we don’t realize how much we need that to read into that next layer even when we think we are just looking for a #beachread.

Thanks to @emilyhenrywrites @berkleypub and @netgalley for the advanced copy.

#bookreview #bookstagram #bookish #summerreads #aprilreads #librariansofinstagram #storydoorway #characterdoorway

Emily Henry could write the phone book and I'd read it. Her characters are always so vivid and complex, and I love her world and relationship building. I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed my favorite romance trope. Highly recommend to everyone (and to check out her other books!).

*Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for this E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.*

Have you ever spent the last 45 minutes of a book ugly crying and then proceeded to let out a scream into the void after you've finished it? Yes? No? Well if not get ready for Beach Read.

This book shook me with how much it affected me emotionally. One minute I was laughing at the main characters optimism and snarky wit and then I was absolutely sobbing with her through all of her heartaches and hardships.

What I liked best about this book was that the romance was a vessel for the deeper hurt and emotions that our main character needed to work through. The romance was of course steamy, witty, and mildly enemies to lovers (which is just my cup of tea) but it also wasn't the only thing about this story that was real. There was so much emotional depth spun so expertly into the story that I didn't even realize it until the tears were on my cheeks. Bravo, I'll be watching out for more from Emily Henry in the future.

Content Warnings: Cheating, parent death, cancer, illness, child abuse

While processing grief and dealing with extreme writer's block (most likely related to said grief), January Andrews moves into a lake house in Michigan. Little does she know that her neighbor is her nemesis and writing rival Augustus (Gus) Everett who also displays the tell-tale signs of being unable to pen his next great novel. One night, the two strike up an interesting bet: they will write books in the other's genre to get inspired and out of their writing ruts. January agrees to go on research trips with Gus to learn his writing process if he agrees to live each meet cute and happily ever after she concocts.

I LOVED this book, and could not put it down. Emily Henry has a voice that challenges the romance naysayers of the world and shows that love goes beyond the meet cutes and happily ever afters. While Gus and January's relationship is heartwarming to watch grow in the novel, it's the familial relationships that really bring in the heart of the story. Both characters are complex and complicated, and both must learn and grow throughout the pages. I found Beach Read to be beautiful and full of truth and depth.

I recommend this to readers who enjoyed The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, Love Lettering, and books by Katherine Center.

I loved Beach Read by Emily Henry! This was the perfect escape for my mind right now and I loved diving into the story of January and Gus. The character development and the quick-witted banter made for lots of laughs and a good cry. I couldn’t put the book down and look forward to talking about it with others! Don’t miss it!

This was not at all like what I'd expected.

First of all, Beach Read is incredibly well written, with some of the best writing I've seen in romance. It's voice-y with extremely sensory prose; you won't help but be sucked in. That alone warrants five stars.

Then we have the first 30% or so that reads like a rom com with toooons of humor and banter. I was sucked in immediately. The best part though, banter aside? The characters felt REAL. Imperfect. Realistic struggles. In between the giggles and shrieks, I found myself hurting for both of them. The author does a good job of layering real problems in between the witty phrases and dialogue.

Basically we have January, a romance novelist, and Gus, her rival from college. After a really awful thing happens, a broke January moves to her dad's beach house that she only JUST discovered exist. She needs to write a novel so she can sell it. Fast. Gus has moved in next door. And he's rude. And kinda flirty. And he acts like his 'literary' novels are deeper than her romance books. But they make a deal to swap genres for their next book, and go on 'research' outings together which yeah, they're practically dates.

But then we hit 35-40% and everything changes. All the little hints hit home and the emotion quickly drags us (and the characters) under in a landslide of problems and insecurities. From here on out, it's HEAVY. And I mean so heavy that I had to sit it down multiple times because my poor tender heart, especially during this anxiety filled pandemic in the real world, couldn't take it all at once. I can tell this author has read Story Genius in the way the characters are approached. Early on, their misbeliefs about the world are stated, and continuously challenged over the course of the book.

Anyway if you're looking for an equal parts fun yet PAINFUL book, this is the one for you. Rest assured, though, because in typical romance novel fashion, the ending is great.

i don’t even reallllly know where to start with this one, & i mean that in the besssssst possible way. this book is as not at all what i was expecting & from the very first sentence until the very end of the story, i was wayyy invested. this is a story of love & forgiveness, of grief & redemption, of choosing to let people surprise you even when you think you have them figured out. it’s a story of family & heartbreak & falling in love when everything is else is falling apart around you. January & Gus killed me in all of the best ways, truly. i want Gus for myself & all his fascination for cults. (which, relatable who am i kidding) i suppper appreciated the depth that the secondary characters brought to this story & found it way refreshing to see them push the story along in the way only real, intentional relationship can. i think for me though, the reason i loved it so much was that this book was a true story of the brokenness of life & love & finding ourselves when we’re sure we’ve lost ourselves. this is deffff one of those books people are & will be raving about & for such good reason. it’s romance at its best - passionate, unintentional, real & full of emotion you can’t fake. this releases may 19th & it’s realllly going to be the perfect beach read. a definite ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 from me! thanks to berkleypub & netgalley for this e-arc! whattta read. once i started, i couldn’t put it down

I wasn't sure if I would like this based on the description (and, to be honest, the names of the main characters - Augustus Everett and January Andrews), but I ended up really enjoying it. Gus and January have a history as college creative writing rivals, and they end up living next to each other for the summer. They both have some pretty serious emotional baggage, particularly January, and they each plan to churn out their next best-selling novel during the summer so they can get back on track financially and career-wise. Gus is a literary fiction phenomenon and January is a romance/women's fiction novelist, and they agree to do some "trading places" to try to teach each other how to write in their respective genres. I like the "lessons" January gives Gus in the tropes of romantic comedy, and the novel that Gus is writing about a local cult that ended in tragedy is pretty interesting. I would definitely read more of Henry's books.

I went into this hoping for a cute romance and my exceptions were blown out of the water. January’s outlook on romance is shattered when everything she knew was not what she thought it was and her writing took the blow. January and Gus have a past with each other and have landed in the situation of being neighbours. We get a tense vibe from these two, starting back in college when they would compete within their own program, only to pick up where they left off when reunited years later. January and Gus have now taken upon themselves to write in each other’s genre. I was drawn in from the start, reading January and Gus’s intense inner turmoil that they share with one another and the beautiful, tear-jerking romance that came with it. I can’t wait to get my hands on my copy and read it again.

If this book was the exact same but with a different skeleton in the closet this probably would have been a five star read.

“Beach Read” follows January as she struggles to adjust when her life comes crashing down after learning of her father’s affair at his funeral and on her quiet retreat to his beach house she finds that she and the neighbor have a history of competing to be the better writer and with nothing but misery to focus on they both decide to make a bet that they will explore each other’s genre but there’s no promise of a happy ending.

Okay to start I can’t stand cheating especially on someone who is going through a life threatening illness so her dad can fuck off.

That being said everything between Gus and January was amazing. Their rivalry that began in college and has extended to their adult lives was so entertaining especially their little scenes of nonstop banter as they traveled to different places to do research for the other’s book and I think those were my favorite. Both fully jumped into the others element and were willing to try and manage their own baggage while being the support the other needed and learned that sometimes things aren’t perfect but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive for that happy ending.

It’s ironic that there’s very little time spent on the beach for a book with said title but if you’re looking for something that offers a little bit of light on a rainy day this will be a perfect read for you.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

4.5 Stars-- The thing that absolutely sold me on this book was the authorial voice. I just loved the balance of humor and observation... 1000% worked for me. This book rides the line between "chick lit" and romance perfectly, and I was as invested in the internal character growth dynamic (e.g. the heroine coming to terms with her father's death & the shattering of the perfect image she had of her parents' relationship) as I was in the main characters getting together. This has a grumpy hero which I'm a sucker for, plus a "you think I've always hated you but I've actually always been hot for you" trope. On top of all these things that just work for me was one of my kryptonite elements: a strong meta quality. I loved the commentary on the romance genre in comparison to literary fiction, and I loved the respect the author clearly has for both types of books.

All in all, I had such a wonderful time with this one & would highly recommend

Don’t mind me, just going to lay on my rug with sunglasses and a bikini and pretend I’m not at home. Lucky for me, this was the perfect escape read! I could leave my living room through the pages and take in the problems of other people while leaving my own behind for awhile. It was great.

The story is told solely through the perspective of January, an author who’s father recently passed away and is facing some hard truths about her family and herself. I really liked that it was told from one perspective (I needed a break from multiple points of view), and that January was so easy for me to relate to.

I also appreciated the rival/enemies to lovers tension and heart touching quality of this story. It truly pulled me in from beginning to end. I laughed, felt some feels, and am grateful to have read this. Behind the humor and romance there is a great depth to this witty novel.
It’s rom-com literature gold. 💛
I give it 4.5/5 stars rounded up to 5 for this review.

I needed this book right now. My father just passed away and I could really relate to January. These were my initial thoughts when I finished it late at night: This book is for all of us. The ones who aren't sure that life & love will ever be okay. For the moments that are happy for now moments that we need to look forward to and look back on with smiles.

I did feel there were a few interactions between January and Gus were repetitive. But I liked how their feelings were buried under the surface and as they got to know each other slowly fell for each other.
I also liked the look into writers/author's lives and how January and Gus really challenged each other.

A really great book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I heard two mentions of this book in subsequent podcasts and decided it might be just the thing as I am cooped up on a snowy April day during a pandemic. I was excited to get an ARC through NetGalley. Despite the title, Beach Read, I found that this book had more substance than what I think of as the typical beach read. January and Gus were rivals in their creative writing program at the University of Michigan. We meet them a few years later as published authors who have each retreated to a beach community in Michigan to deal with personal issues and writers block. Their evident attraction for one another initially takes the form of verbal sparring about their chosen genres and past rivalry. Gus writes literary fiction and January is a romance/women's lit writer. To overcome her writer's block and defend her genre, January challenges Gus to a competition. Each will write a book in the other's genre and the first to get their book published wins. The guidelines for the competition include field trips which put the two together every Friday and Saturday alternately exploring romance trops and a cult tragedy. I assumed going in that these two characters would get involved. The additional plot lines with their family secrets kept this plot moving for me. I also enjoyed some of the fast paced dialogue-lots of sassy zingers. Some of the misunderstandings between January and Gus seemed unrealistic to me but I guess people often mistake the motives of others. Although I am not typically a romance reader, this one seemed less formulaic than others I have read. Overall the book provided a much needed diversion.

This book was so hyped by my friends on Goodreads that I couldn't wait to read it but honestly, I don't understand the hype at all. I found it a little boring and slow at times and just didn't seem to care for any of the characters.

I absolutely adored this book. I did not want it to end and I wanted to keep following along with January and Gus. Not only that but I loved the character's names and their personalities. This is a combination you do not often get. The only thing keeping me from a five-star review is that at times it felt that their conflicts were dragged on and I found myself skimming. Other than that, this was such a beautiful story about loss and trusting again. I will definitely be rereading this one.